Endangered Status The Slender Chub is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as threatened throughout its range in Tennessee and Virginia. This species is thought to have been exterminated in Virginia, where a 1967 chemical spill in the Clinch River, plus chronic toxic runoff from coal mines, had devastating effects on the local fauna. It survives in small areas of the Clinch and Powell Rivers in Tennessee. There it has suffered from the effects of damming, and the release of cold water from the dams, as well as pollution from waste water discharge.